Folk Fest: Kid Koala keeps his paws busy

Building a robot, writing a graphic novel, manning the turntables and pushing a baby in a stroller. It may not be the life that most DJs lead, but it’s the one that the DJ known as Kid Koala does. And while it may seem busy and hectic, for the Montrealer it’s what keeps him sane.

“I think that’s actually the most sane way I have to organize my life,” explains Eric San, the creative artist behind the moniker. “I don’t just do music 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It’s more like when we need a break from that – or when you’ve been in the studio too long and your head is ringing a bit, or you’ve been on a tour and you get back and you’re like okay let’s design this robot, go to the hardware store and buy a bunch of dryer duct.”

“It just keeps things fresh for you, that’s what DJ-ing is all about, keeping things fresh.”

The fresh life than San leads has given him the chance to do many things you may not expect of a hip-hop DJ, like playing a 30-year-old folk music festival.

“I’ve played a blues festival, several jazz festivals, a hip-hop festival, a comedy festival but never a folk festival, so this is new,” says San, while going for a walk with his daughter a few days before his scheduled performance in Calgary.

What he’s looking forward to with playing a new type of crowd is showing what you can do on the turntables.

Photo courtesy Ninja Tune Records. When not spinning, Kid Koala uses his hands for other things — namely building a robot for a live-action film.

“You can expect a very silly set that will go into all genres of music. For me it’s all about showing the range of what a turntable can do. So sometimes it will be pure jerky stuff and other times it will be like shake your booty kind of stuff,” he said.

And when he’s not educating a new audience with his skills, San is building the aforementioned robot.

“I’m actually building a robot with my friend Sharon. We’re going to be shooting a live-action film of the graphic novel Nufonia I wrote in 2003,” explains San. The film is a short romantic comedy between the robot and his love interest, a girl named Malloreigh. San figures it’s a fun thing to do during the summer in Montreal.

“Our whole crew and our lighting people and gaffers are going to be on bikes so we’re just going to have our shot list set up and everyone will show up at a certain time and we’re going to hopefully get some stuff in the can.”